1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sports training equipment and more particularly to a ball presentation device.
2. Prior Art
Developing hand-eye coordination is an important exercise in sports such as baseball, softball, golf and tennis. In recognition of the importance of this skill, many practice devices have been developed to provide means for developing hand-eye coordination and perfecting a complex body motion such as swinging a bat, club or racquet. Stationary baseball teeing devices are well known in the art and are used for presenting a ball to a batter in the sport known as xe2x80x9cT-ballxe2x80x9d. T-ball is a sport that enables its practitioners to develop and perfect swing mechanics as well as hand-eye coordination.
To encourage and facilitate batting practice, a number of xe2x80x9cautomaticxe2x80x9d teeing devices have been proposed. Representative examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 6,033,323, 6,024,657, 5,997,419, 5,951,413, 5,928,092, 5,916,045, 5,897,444 and 5,882,270. These prior art devices generally include a tubular member mounted on a base platform, which may be shaped like a home plate. The ball is normally supported on the upper end of the tube and positioned within the batters xe2x80x9cstrike zonexe2x80x9d. Alternatively, the tube may be adjustable in length and/or mounted on a plate, which plate is movably attached to the base platform whereby the distance of the ball from the batter may also be varied.
Notwithstanding the plethora of devices that have been developed for batting practice, all suffer from one or more disadvantages. Devices that are operable for re-teeing a struck ball are expensive to manufacture and/or can cause injury to the batter or damage to the bat or device if the device is accidentally struck by the batter. There remains a need for a ball presentation device that overcomes these problems.
It is a first object of the invention to provide a device that will enable a batter to practice hitting a ball with a bat.
It is a further objective of the invention to provide a device which will enable a batter to hit a ball repetitively without requiring the batter to reposition the ball between successive swings.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a batting practice device meeting the above-stated objectives and can be used in a restricted space.
It is another object of the invention to provide a ball teeing and presentation device that is simple in design, has minimal moving parts, is durable and which is inexpensive to manufacture.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a ball presentation device that is adjustable in height.
It is another object of the invention to provide a ball presentation device which may be used by either a right or left-handed batter.
The features of the invention believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. However the invention itself, both as to organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof may be best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: